Her Book Self

Welcome back to Fairy Tale Fridays!  Though I never quite completed my 2011 Fairy Tale Challenge, I wanted to return to this feature since it's been a while since I shared my thoughts about a short story.  Today's tale of choice is from the authors I seem to favorite: The Brothers Grimm! 

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The Twelve Dancing Princesses is a story that I always thought should be more magical than it actually is.  The story begins with something of a mysterious and enchanting scenario:

There was a king who had twelve beautiful daughters. They slept in twelve beds all in one room and when they went to bed, the doors were shut and locked up. However, every morning their shoes were found to be quite worn through as if they had been danced in all night. Nobody could find out how it happened, or where the princesses had been. 

At this point I can imagine all sorts of mythical and frightening plots which cause the girls to be spirited away and hypnotized into an endless dusk to dawn dance.  The king is equally puzzled about the circumstances and places a challenge - anyone who can solve the mystery of where the princesses go will receive permission to marry one of them and become king.  However, anyone who accepts that challenge and does not succeed in three nights will be executed. 

Predictably, "a king's son" is the first to attempt the task and he fails.  "Several others" - whom the reader can assume are also noblemen of some type - follow suit with equally tragic outcomes.  Then comes a different sort of man to attempt the task.  He is described as an old soldier and on his trek into the kingdom and into the story his first encounter is with an old woman who asks his destination.  He replies,

'I hardly know where I am going, or what I had better do,' said the soldier; 'but I think I would like to find out where it is that the princesses dance, and then in time I might be a king.'

I like that the soldier is so unassuming and I think it's this rather ho-hum attitude that sets him up well as the hero of the tale.  Fortuitously, the old woman knows something of the antics of the princesses and warns the soldier not to drink any wine he is offered and gives him an invisibility cloak to help him on his quest.   As is typical with fairy godmother types, this encounter is the only appearance of the old woman in the story.  The reader is never told if she is a seer, fairy, or witch and the fact that she knows so much of what is going on remains unexplained. 

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The soldier proceeds to the castle and undertakes the challenge of solving the dancing princess mystery.  Following the crone's advice he drinks no wine, pretends to be asleep, and then dons the invisibility cloak to follow the girls through a trap door in their room.  The princesses proceed down a stairway, into boats manned by twelve princes, to a secret ball where the dance the night away.  The soldier follows and partakes in their revelry with only the youngest princess suspicious of his presence.  The elder girls all tell the youngest that she is imagining things or explain away the sounds she hears.  Three nights proceed the same way with the soldier secretly following the girls and collecting evidence of their activities.

When the time comes for the report to the king, the soldier explains all that he has seen.  Oddly enough, there is little protest or argument from the girls.

The king called for the princesses, and asked them whether what the soldier said was true and when they saw that they were discovered, and that it was of no use to deny what had happened, they confessed it all. 

I half expect the youngest princess to blurt out some form of "I told you so" to her elder siblings.  Though she seemed the wisest and most astute of the lot, the soldier surprisingly chooses the eldest to be his bride.  The story explains that she is a better match age-wise, but I almost wonder if this is to be interpreted as some sort of punishment for the eldest. I found the ending of the story to be rather anticlimactic and combined with the lack of magic and mystery surrounding the princess's disappearance every night, it's not one of my favorite fairy tales.  I know there are several retellings and reinventions of this tale and I would be intrigued to search out and read some of them.  For myself, I would love a new version of the story (though not one starring Barbie) in which the princes that spirit the girls away are wizards or ghosts or possess some other enchantment over the princesses such that their evening dancing is more the result of fantasy than just rebellion.

What do you think of The Twelve Dancing Princesses?  Do you like the ending of the story or do you wish it had a bit more excitement?  Have you read or seen any other versions of this story?  

This post marks my first Fairy Tale Fridays entry of 2012.  To check out more FTF posts and my 2011 Fairy Tale Challenge click here!

I've always known myself to be an eclectic reader, but one genre I love, which I don't spotlight very often on this blog, is books for young readers.  As the saying goes, "We all have to grow older, but we don't have to grow up," there are few things that make me feel more like a kid again than a really great picture book.  Knowing this, and knowing how much I enjoy the writing of Neil Gaiman, my husband gave me the book The Wolves in the Walls as a Christmas gift!

The story follows a young girl named Lucy who hears some strange sounds late at night and is convinced there are wolves in the walls of her house.  Her parents and brother wave away her worries with theories of mice or rats or bats and reiterate to her that, "If the wolves come out of the walls, it is all over."  Despite the unbelief of her family, Lucy is right about the wolves and they do make it out of the walls, displacing Lucy, her brother, and her parents from their home.  Though it does seem to be "all over", Lucy comes up with a plan to get their house back!

I really enjoyed the cute and funny but slightly scary story told in Neil Gaiman's signature fashion.  Equally enjoyable were the illustrations crafted by Dave McKean.  I was first exposed to McKean's work through the feature film MirrorMask and have been a fan of his unique style ever since.  Though the wolves may be a bit frightening for very young readers, I think this is an exceptionally charming tale for grade school audiences.  And of course, it can be equally appreciated by much older readers as well.

Are you an older reader that is still a fan of picture books?  Have any great titles to recommend?

In lamenting a particularly frustrating portion of my work as a research scientist, I once described a group of my assignments as "The Rumpelstiltskin Effect".  I felt as though in moving my project forward I was being asked to spin straw into gold - a task that was in every way something that nobody could do, but still I was pursuing it.  Needless to say, that project did not pan out as well as some of my others.

Reflecting on that portion of my work, I also realized that I've never reviewed and analyzed the popular Brothers Grimm story Rumpelstiltskin.  As many know the story begins with the Sisyphean task for the miller's daughter all because of something her father says:

"Once there was a miller who was poor, but who had a beautiful daughter. Now it happened that he had to go and speak to the king, and in order to make himself appear important he said to him, 'I have a daughter who can spin straw into gold.'" 

Notice that the problems all begin because the man was trying to "appear important".  The adage of pride before the fall comes to mind here as the story is set in motion.  The greedy king locks the girl up with a room full of straw and a spinning wheel and threatens to kill her if she cannot perform the feat by morning.  Partly I wonder if this was the king simply trying to call the man's bluff.  I have to wonder if the king would really go through with executing a subject - and a beautiful one at that - for what seems to be an obvious exaggeration.  So the miller's daughter is more than a little bit stuck.  The story tells us:

"She had no idea how straw could be spun into gold, and she grew more and more frightened, until at last she began to weep.  But all at once the door opened, and in came a little man..."

I'll try not to roll my eyes at why the miller's daughter didn't at least start trying to spin her straw, plead hay fever and demand release, or fess up to her father's lies; but as in many fairy tales, we have a male who comes to her rescue.  The stranger creates the gold in exchange for a necklace and when the king's greed causes a repeat of events the miller's daughter turns over a gold ring.  (Does anyone ever stop to wonder why, if the miller was so poor, does his daughter have a necklace and a ring that become some pretty hefty bargaining chips?  Or why, if Rumpelstiltskin can spin stray into gold, does he have need of the girl's trinkets?  Sorry, moving on.)  On the third night, the girl is once more thrust into a room of straw and told by the king, "You must spin this, too, in the course of this night, but if you succeed, you shall be my wife."

Rumpelstiltskin appears to save her once more but she is left without anything to offer him in trade for his service - and yet he offers her a deal:

"'Then promise me, if you should become queen, to give me your first child.'"
Who knows whether that will ever happen, thought the miller's daughter, and, not knowing how else to help herself in this strait, she promised the manikin what he wanted, and for that he once more spun the straw into gold."

I know fairy tale heroines are not known for their brains but since the king promised to marry her for one more night of spinning and if Rumpelstiltskin had already delivered a straw to gold transmogrification twice, why didn't she think she would be queen?  So the story proceeds with the girl marrying the king, and eventually having a child that Rumpelstiltskin comes to claim.  She pleads with him not to take the baby and he offers her a reprieve if she can guess his name.  (I have to wonder, how did he help her out three nights in a row and she never asked who he was?)  Of course the big "R" is not a name on anyone's lips so the new queen's situation is rather dire.  She sends out messengers to seek new names from all the kingdoms and eventually one returns with the following tale of what he observed:

"Round about the fire quite a ridiculous little man was jumping, he hopped upon one leg, and shouted -
     'To-day I bake, to-morrow brew,

     the next I'll have the young queen's child.
     Ha, glad am I that no one knew
     that Rumpelstiltskin I am styled.'" 

The queen reveals the answer to the guessing game and the peeved little man suffers a rather disastrous fate:

"...in his anger he plunged his right foot so deep into the earth that his whole leg went in, and then in rage he pulled at his left leg so hard with both hands that he tore himself in two."

Typically Grimm, that line is the morbid end to the story.  At first, my reaction to this story is one of disdain.  None of the characters are exceptionally virtuous, but on second look there are some actual morals to be found.  The first may be that honesty is the best policy and that one should not tell lies to make themselves seem more important, but I think the larger lesson revealed is to guard one's words.

There are multiple Biblical proverbs about this topic, and regardless of your thoughts on the divinity of scripture, the advice is exceptionally wise.  One example is Proverbs 13:3 "He who guards his lips guards his life, but he who speaks rashly will come to ruin." (18:21 says, "The tongue has the power of life and death" and 21:23 states, "He who guards his mouth and his tongue keeps himself from calamity.")  Knowing that the Grimms were in the practice of moralizing, I think it can be rather obvious how these verses tie into the tale.

Firstly, the father's boastfulness is what begins the whole fiasco.  The king's harsh threats cause the miller's daughter her panic, which in turn leads to her making an unwise promise to Rumpelstiltskin.  All through the story we see the characters causing their own trouble because of what they say and ultimately, it is the little man's words when he thinks no one can hear him that leads the queen to have his name. 


What are your thoughts on the morals and lessons of Rumpelstiltskin?  Is discretionary speech a good theme to pull out of this tale or do you interpret it differently?  Do you feel bad that things ended so poorly for the titular character or do you think he got what he deserved? 


This post marks another entry in my 2011 Fairy Tale Challenge (10 out of 12) hosted by Tif of Tif Talks Books.  I'd love for you to share your thoughts on this post or any of my previous Fairy Tale Fridays selections and wish me luck in finding two more tales to post about before year's end!

Those words may be the most iconic and memorable portion of the story of Rapunzel, but the phrase, though oft repeated, is just a small portion of the original fairy tale.  Since my last entry for Fairy Tale Fridays featured Melisande, an updated long-hair princess story, I thought I would take this week to explore the classic version of Rapunzel.  As is often the case, the story has origins dating to the 1600's but the version that most consider the classic tale is the one recorded by The Brothers Grimm. (Full text of the story is available here.)

In this version, a childless couple lives next to a walled garden owned by a witch.  Seeking to please his wife, the man sneaks into the garden to steal some rampion.  Though successful at first, the man's thievery is discovered by the witch who demands, as payment, "the child [his] wife will shortly bring into the world".  It is unclear in the story whether the wife was expecting before the man went to steal the rampion.  I used to assume the the wife's craving was associated with pregnancy, but an interesting alternative was that the wife was simply looking for things denied to her as part of the frustration of her inability to have children.  With this perspective, it could also be taken to mean that the man's interaction with the witch caused his wife to conceive.  It could be that the only reason the man agreed to the witch's deal was that he did not believe his wife would ever have a child.  Needless to say, the man strikes the bargain, a child is born, and the girl is given over to the witch who promises to care for her as a mother.  (Rampion is a plant similar to lettuce or spinach and is also called rapunzel, giving the girl and the story its name.) 

Rapunzel, of course, is kept in a door-less tower by the witch who comes to see her and climbs into her window by requesting each time the well-known phrase, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your golden hair!"  In the Grimm story, her hair is golden and it's one of few details preserved from the original story in the Disney film Tangled.  (Loved the film, but for now I'm going to tailor this post towards the original story.)  The witch's method of entry into Rapunzel's tower is then observed by a prince who hears Rapunzel's singing and falls in love with her.  She is frightened by him at first but he wins her over with kind words and compliments.  He pleads for her to escape with him and she instructs him to "bring a skein of silk" every time he comes to see her and plans to construct a ladder to use to climb out of the tower.

This is definitely the portion of the story where the reader could conceive of better plans than the protagonists.  One wonders why the witch would not be suspicious of skeins of silk accumulating in the tower room.  And of all the materials to ask for, why silk for a ladder when hemp rope, linen, or even cotton would be a much better material to work with.  Granted, Rapunzel also could have cut off her own hair and climbed down the tower herself.  I don't know the reason for Rapunzel's instructions, but I like to imagine that she is testing her prince.  Silk would be expensive and rare so she was measuring how much her freedom was worth to the prince, and by instructing him to come every day she was testing his devotion to her.  Rather than just run off with him, he needed to prove himself worthy of her first.

Of course, before the prince's love and determination are witnessed, Rapunzel makes a big blunder.  She reveals her relationship with the prince to the witch.  The witch cuts off Rapunzel's hair and casts her into exile.  Waiting in the tower for the prince, the witch fools him with the hair into climbing the tower before revealing that Rapunzel is gone.  And then the prince throws himself out the window.  I'm not sure why he was so easily upset by the witch.  I would have preferred for him to fight for Rapunzel or demand to know her whereabouts.  I can only assume - or at least hope - that there was some magic involved in the prince's instant turn toward despair.  Though he survives the fall from the tower, he is blinded by thorns which prick out his eyes.

One might expect a Brothers Grimm story to end here.  Rapunzel is cast out, the prince is blind, and the witch is seemingly triumphant.  However, there is something better in store for the ending of this tale.  The prince wanders far and wide, until,

"...he came to the desert place where Rapunzel was living. Of a sudden he heard a voice which seemed strangely familiar to him. He walked eagerly in the direction of the sound, and when he was quite close, Rapunzel recognized him and fell on his neck and wept. But two of her tears touched his eyes, and in a moment they became quite clear again, and he saw as well as he had ever done. Then he led her to his kingdom, where they were received and welcomed with great joy, and they lived happily ever after."

I love that this one ends with the classical last three words.   As much as I enjoy when tales take darker turns, I always appreciate it when things finish on a positive note. 

This post is part of my 2011 Fairy Tale Challenge (6 out of 12) inspired by Tif of Tif Talks Books.  What do you think about the original version of Rapunzel?  Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section here or link up with your own post about this tale or any fairy tale you feel like reading this month!

My friend Ellen recently introduced me to a really awesome website called We Give Books.  I checked it out and decided - this is one of those things I can't not blog about!!  Yeah, double negative, I know, but it fits.  This is a really awesome organization and I'm remarkably surprised how many people don't know of it's existence.  Basically, you go online, read a children's book and they donate a book to charity!  Read a book, Give a book.  It really is that simple!

Now, I should mention that I don't currently have children, but I still love to read children's books.  Why?  Well, partly it is the opportunities to share my love of reading with nieces and nephews, sometimes it's me reminiscing about works I loved when I was small, and occasionally it's just pure curiosity about new and creative stories for young people.  And illustrations.  I'm a sucker for great illustrations!

There are some awesome charities being served by this project so if you have a few minutes, why not check out your favorite - or find a new favorite - children's book online?  Feel free to stop back and comment to let me know what book(s) you chose!

I realize that I'm catching the tail-end of this one (May 2-8), but I didn't want the week to pass completely without taking the time to focus on a great book that's a fun read for kids of all ages.

Melisande by E. Nesbit is a great fairy tale story including a princess, a host of fairies, magic wishes, and several other classic bedtime story elements.  However, this is also a story that takes a few twists from the predicted path and plays upon traditional fairy tale cliches. The whole story is available here, but the illustrated version is an even more delightful read. 

Melisande is a princess born to a rather wise king and a very typical queen.  In discussing their daughter's christening party, the royal couple decides not to have a celebration since whenever a fairy is not invited - and one among the many is inevitably always forgotten  - that fairy places a curse on the child.  The parents' decision rather than pleasing the fae of the kingdom serves to anger them all.  Luckily, Melisande survives with only a single curse placed upon here - she is bald.  The young child grows up to be exceedingly kind and lovely and has very little regret of missing locks, but as she ages her mother decides she should have hair.

Using an overdue wish from her father's fairy godmother, Melisande wishes for hair and on her mother's urging gains a golden yard which grows an inch every day and grows twice as fast every time it is cut.  The wise king is the only one who initially sees folly in this wish as, "he had a mathematical mind, and could do the sums about the grains of wheat on the chessboard, and the nails in the horse's shoes, in his Royal head without any trouble at all."  And Melisande's ever growing hair becomes not just a source of amusement in the tale, but a great lesson in numbers for young learners as well!

As the gift becomes quite unmanageable, princes are summoned to the kingdom to solve the hairy dilemma (couldn't resist!), one comes up with the solution to not cut the hair off the princess but to cut the princess off the hair!  What seems an ingenious answer soon proves equally problematic, and once again it is the king who sees why.

"Humph!" said the King, who had a logical mind. And during breakfast he more than once looked anxiously at his daughter. When they got up from breakfast the Princess rose with the rest, but she rose and rose and rose, till it seemed as though there would never be an end of it. The Princess was nine feet high.
"I feared as much," said the King, sadly. "I wonder what will be the rate of progression. You see," he said to poor Florizel, "when we cut the hair off, it grows — when we cut the Princess off, she grows. I wish you had happened to think of that!"

I won't give away the ending of the story (and only said as much as I did because of the cover image with a rather giant princess) but it really is a clever and charming tale.  For young fans of the recent Disney hit movie Tangled, Melisande is a great story with a similar long-hair problem as Rapunzel and with humorous twists and turns to be encountered as it is solved.

Along with celebrating the joy of young readers during Children's Book Week, this story is also part of my 2011 Fairy Tale Challenge (5 of 12) begun by Tif at Tif Talks Books.  Feel free to share your thoughts about Melisande in the comments section or link up with your own post featuring your favorite Children's Book or Fairy Tale!

Happy April Fool's Day!  For those unfamiliar with the "holiday" or at least the American take on it, April 1st is referred to as April Fool's Day and is generally considered a day for people to play lighthearted jokes or pranks on others.  Though some people will use the day for malicious endeavors, I've always enjoyed it as a time for silliness and make it a point to try to fool people - if even for a brief moment.  Sometimes it can be something as silly as declaring, "It's snowing outside!" to see how many recently risen sleepyheads will rush to the window in search of late winter flurries.  Other times I've pretended to lose something important - "I lost my keys!" in a panicked voice before pulling them out of my purse.  My family has always found laughs in funny little "Gotcha!" moments and I will even admit that it's just as fun when the joke is on me!

But the name "April Fool's Day" also got me thinking about the word "fool" as a noun rather than a verb, and I've been reflecting on how often the character of a fool comes up in fairy tales.  The first one that comes to my mind is Jack of Jack and the Beanstalk fame.  The young boy who sells his cow for magic beans is an obvious answer of a gullible character despite the fact that the beans he buys truly are magic.    There are also plenty of examples of fairy tale heroes and heroines playing the trickster and the fool is their rival in the story.  Examples of this are the Anansi stories of folk lore and Uncle Remus' Brer Rabbit tales (many of which were inspired by the spider god).

The story I want to bring up this week though is one that I encountered for the first time in high school.  As a teenager, I probably considered myself too old for fairy tales, but as I was learning Spanish, one of my instructors frequently gave us folk tales from Latin America to read - often featuring a character named Juan Bobo.  (I know folk tales and fairy tales aren't quite the same thing, but I guess this could be considered me fooling all of those who thought this would be a true fairy tale post.)  The name Juan Bobo roughly translates to Dumb John and the stories of his adventures are mostly silly tales with shenanigans involving misinterpreted instructions.  At first I thought this concept was somewhat unjust in making fun of someone with a mental disability, but culturally, these stories are not intended to poke fun at those with actual mental problems, rather just run-of-the-mill lack of common sense.   An apt comparison would be the practice of telling "blond jokes" - few people believe that individuals with blond hair are less intelligent that others, the group just serves as a target for the joke telling platform. 

I had a difficult time finding an online version of any of the Juan Bobo stories (especially translated to English) but one I was able to find - that I remember reading in high school - is La Puerca de Juan Bobo, or Juan Bobo's Pig.  In this story, Juan Bobo is told by his mother to wash their pig before selling it in the market.  The mother instructs him to make the pig "look as beautiful as [he] can."  To most people this would just involve washing the mud off the animal, but to Juan Bobo it goes much further.

"Juan Bobo went to his mother's closet and got out her red taffeta skirt with the elastic waist band, and he slipped that around the pig's waist...He borrowed a blouse and a bright red wig, and he fit those onto the pig.  He outlined the pig's eyes as best he could with black eyeliner and a touch of blue eyeshadow; he put bright red lipstick on the pig's lips; and he got two pairs of his mother's high-heeled pumps and strapped those onto her trotters.

"Now the pig looked really beautiful to Juan Bobo!"

Of course, Juan Bobo runs into trouble on the way to the market when the pig decides it would much rather wear mud than makeup and heels.  There's not much of a moral to the story outside of the fact that animals will follow their instincts and it is futile to try to make them what they are not; but the true purpose of this and most of the Juan Bobo stories are laughter and silliness.  It is the image of a pig dressed up in fancy clothes, a wig, and high heels that gives the tale entertainment value and the phrase "como la puerca de Juan Bobo" (like Juan Bobo's pig) is still used to describe someone who overdoes makeup and accessories to a ridiculous degree.  (As far as I'm aware, though this is an insult, it's not a vulgar one.)

So what do you think about fool's in fairy tales and folk lore?  Do you have a favorite story of a trickster or foolish hero?


This story is part of my 2011 Fairy Tale Challenge (4 of 12) which began as Fairy Tale Fridays originally hosted by Tif of Tif Talks Books.  Feel free to share your thoughts on Juan Bobo's Pig in the comments below or leave a link to your own Fairy Tale Friday post and let me know what tale you're talking about this week!  I'm also eager for suggestions so if you have a favorite story (classic or retold) to share I'm always on the lookout for stories that are new to me!

For this week's edition of Fairy Tale Fridays, I wanted to revisit a classic story that I remembered and loved from my childhood.   The Emperor's New Suit (or "The Emperor's New Clothes" as it is often called) by Hans Christian Andersen relates a fable about a vain ruler whose "only ambition was to be always well dressed."  This seems a very selfish goal for someone in such a high position but it is this attribute that leads to his troubles and ultimately to the grand lessons of the tale.  As the story begins, 

"...two swindlers came to this city; they made people believe that they were weavers, and declared they could manufacture the finest cloth to be imagined. Their colours and patterns, they said, were not only exceptionally beautiful, but the clothes made of their material possessed the wonderful quality of being invisible to any man who was unfit for his office or unpardonably stupid."

I love that the story takes place in a fairy tale like realm where the general populace would possess enough superstition and naivete to accept the existence of such magical fibers.  And of course none of them - at first - have the humility or courage to admit that the cloth is invisible to them or to challenge the so-called weavers' claim.  As the swindlers work, the emperor sends many people to inspect their progress.  Both a minister and a courtier that the emperor deems honest go to see the fabric.

Neither wants to admit to being unfit for their position or to be declared "unpardonably stupid" (love that phrase), so both of them lie and report to their leader that the cloth is beautiful, the design and colours exquisite.  At this point in the story, I always wonder what would happen had the emperor sought to see for himself rather than sending others in his stead.  The emissaries he sends to report for him are both described in the tale as "honest" and yet neither is truthful to the emperor.  Here we see one of many important lessons coming out of the tale and it's not only that honesty is the best policy but it's caution in whom we trust.  In a quote usually attributed to Shakespeare, Sir Walter Scott wrote,
I can't think of a more appropriate way to summarize what happens in this story.  All of the townspeople and everyone close to the emperor begins to fabricate (pun intentional) what the cloth looks like and when the emperor is finally presented with the work, he goes along with the charade.  Often in telling this story, blame of some sort is placed on the emperor but I like to cut him some slack.  In many ways he's the last person to pretend to see the fabric and in his situation, with everyone around him declaring to see the material, it would be immensely difficult to admit to not seeing it.  However, since all we ever learn about him is that he is the ruler and enjoys fine clothing, I often wonder why he did not just pretend to disagree with the weavers' taste.  Why did he not throw out the "suit" and declare it ugly?  Or, when pretending to try it on, why not argue the fit as uncomfortable and refuse to be presented in it?

Yes, it was foolish of the courtiers and the people to pretend to see what they did not, but in the end, the emperor was the only one who went so far as to don the imagined clothing!  The ending of the story is rather amusing as a young child finally declares - as the emperor is paraded through the streets - "But he has nothing on at all".  This is both a testament to childlike innocence as well as an observation of mob mentality.  Once the statement is made it ripples through the crowd until reaching the ears of the ruler.  Andersen closes the tale with the statement, "That [hearing the crowd] made a deep impression upon the emperor, for it seemed to him that they were right; but he thought to himself, 'Now I must bear up to the end.'"  So despite knowing the truth, he goes on with the pretense in order to once again save face, providing Andersen a final satirical barb.

This story is a wealth of morals and lessons and I really enjoyed rereading it.  I was surprised at how close the text was to the various versions I heard and read as a child.  It wasn't a twisted or darker version of what I remember and still maintains a lighthearted humor and silliness for bedtime enjoyment.

The Emperor's New Suit by Hans Christian Andersen marks 3/12 in my 2011 Fairy Tale Challenge and continues Fairy Tale Fridays originally started by Tif of Tif Talks Books!  Feel free to share your thoughts on  this tale in the comments below or join in the fun with a post of your own!  I'd love to hear about what fairy tales - new, old, reinvented, retold - you're reading this week as well!

Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery is a book that for me falls firmly in the category of "how did I go through my childhood without having read this?"  (Also falling under that header are Treasure Island, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Little Women, and numerous works by Frances Hodgson Burnett.)  I had seen the miniseries and its sequel so I was familiar with the story, but it took me past the age of thirty to actually dive into the text of this classic.

The story follows orphan heroine Anne (with an "e"!) Shirley who comes to live with aging siblings Marila and Matthew Cuthbert.  The precocious young girl is a wealth of imagination and her vibrant spirit breathes new life into her adoptive family's world.  L. M. Montgomery's descriptions of Prince Edward Island are wonderfully detailed, but it is the neighbors and townspeople that really make Anne's tale so charming.  From town busybody Rachael Lynde to Anne's bosom friend Diana Barry, the cast is unique and entirely lovable.  I was especially drawn into the relationship between Anne and Gilbert Blythe.  From the television series, I knew love was in their future, but their early interactions, in which animosity and competition grow slowly into admiration and friendship, contained a sweet childish innocence that made me all the more appreciative of their relationship to come.

I also found myself reflecting a lot on Anne's character.  She has a tendency to allow her daydreaming to carry her thoughts away, often in the middle of everyday chores and conversations.  In real life, I think a person like this would probably drive me crazy.  With so many tangents and seemingly irrelevant comments, I picture that I would be fed up with Anne after only a short conversation with her.  However, in text, I loved every minute of her vivid imaginings and troublesome antics.  Her creative naming of the ordinary things around her as well as her romantic spirit were lovely to read in a storybook character, and I know I was left wanting to incorporate a bit more of Anne's dreamy outlook in my own everyday perspective.   Herein lies the true beauty of this book.  Even those of us who have little in common with Prince Edward Island's fictional past can still savor the spark of color that a boisterous little redhead can impart on the world around her.

One of the reasons I love fantasy as a genre is for the mythical creatures.  Unicorns, griffins, minotaurs - I love the imagination of new beasts and monsters and one of my favorites is the Phoenix.  I knew the legend of the bird that dies by immolation and is reborn from its own ashes and of course, I loved how J. K. Rowling used Fawkes the Phoenix as a hero and symbol of hope in the Harry Potter series (most notably in book/movie two: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets).

But I was intrigued when I discovered that Hans Christian Andersen had his own story about and titled after The Phoenix Bird (click the link to read the story).  It's a short tale - more akin to the origin type story told in The Ear of Corn by the Brothers Grimm than the usual fairy tale style I've come to associate with Andersen - but I do like it.  If you're not familiar with it, take the time to read it before continuing with this post because my favorite part really is the ending. 

There are a few things that speak to me about this story.  If we take the Phoenix as a symbol for the spirit of creativity and imagination, we see that it has been around since the dawn of creation.  As long as there have been human beings, this spirit has lived among them.  Andersen writes, "The bird flutters round us, swift as light, beauteous in color, charming in song," and one can imagine the natural gift of creativity in the form of a mythical bird swooping through Andersen's pen as this tale was composed.  We can also see that the Phoenix is shown to be universal - belonging to no single land or culture - and with the varied lands described in the story it is clear that the Phoenix "is not the bird of Arabia alone." Andersen ends the story with a lovely tribute to the bird in proclaiming a name for it:
I think this is a fitting conclusion to the simple story because in its essence this piece is much more of a poem than a traditional  tale.  The short length of the work and the vibrant writing speak much more of poetry than of a typical fairy story with a happily ever after ending.  What do you think about Hans Christian Andersen's The Phoenix Bird? 

This post is part of my 2011 Fairy Tale Challenge (2 of 12) and continues the Fairy Tale Fridays meme originally begun by Tif of Tif Talks Books.  I'd love to hear your thoughts on this story or any other fairy tale of your choice!  Leave a link in the comments below if you're joining the Fairy Tale Fun this week!

 In the past I've used Fairy Tale Fridays as a chance to explore classic fairy tales such as those by Hans Christian Andersen and The Brothers Grimm.  However, I also want to use this meme and my 2011 Fairy Tale Challenge to focus on some modern books that very easily fit into the fairy tale genre.  Today's pick is from an author that composes fiction for readers of all ages.  I previously read and reviewed her novel The Actor and The Housewife, but today I want to spotlight a different book by Shannon Hale.

Princess Academy is a cute fairy-tale story perfect for youth or young adults but easily enjoyed as a light novel for grown readers too. The book tells the story of Miri, a young girl from a mountain village who feels useless to her town since she is forbidden to work in the rock quarry with her family. One day an emissary from the king comes to the mountain and reveals that the king's priests have determined that the prince's bride is to be chosen among the girls from Miri's village.

Miri and all her friends are sent to a special Princess Academy to learn the ways of royalty but as Miri progresses through the school she finds that, even more than becoming a Princess, what she really longs for is a place to belong. With themes of the importance and potential of all people, and with a story that is sweet and yet unpredictable, Shannon Hale's Princess Academy is a charming tale that deserves all the accolades showered upon it.

I don't want to give away too much of this story, but I will say that it's a lovely fairy tale.  For those looking for a recent publication of an ages-old genre, this is definitely a short novel that you won't want to miss!

Welcome back to Fairy Tale Fridays, a meme hosted by Tif of Tif Talks Books.  This week, with winter - and plenty of snow - upon those in my region of the United States, we're looking at the story The Snow Man by Hans Christian Andersen.

This story is a little strange in that it doesn't have a clear cut theme or moral running through it.  In the most basic sense, it is just a fanciful story about the goings-on of a snow man and the things he does, thinks, and says.  The reader is told very little about the building and the genesis of the snowman's life.  He simply appears fully anthropomorphic at the start of the tale with the line,

"It is so delightfully cold,” said the Snow Man, “that it makes my whole body crackle. This is just the kind of wind to blow life into one."

This seems to set the icy creation up as the hero of the tale but he never quite becomes a protagonist to relate to, as he is more or less confused and bumbling, taking all his cues and information about the world around him from the other main character, the dog.  

In fact, the dog goes so far as to explain to the snowman about the miraculous thing known as the stove.  Peering through a window, the snowman catches sight of the stove and amusingly falls in love with the object.  The reader knows that this romantic infatuation is doomed from the beginning but nevertheless the snowman peers longingly through the window throughout his brief life.

The story ends predictably with our hero melting away.  I wonder if perhaps, Andersen's main point of this tale is the transient nature of life.  We're all born and we all die, but it is what happens between those two events that really defines each one of us.  I could extrapolate on this to say that the snowman had a more interesting and unique life because he decided to love the stove.  Andersen could very well be saying that we all are like the snowman and our brief lives are enriched by the decision to love others.

Or it could just be a fanciful little story based on the question of what would a snowman do and say and think, if in fact a snowman could do and say and think.

What are your thoughts on this wintery fairy tale?  Feel free to comment here or join in with your own Fairy Tale Fridays post and link up over on Tif Talks Books!

Snow White and Rose Red by The Brothers Grimm is the type of story that I think of when I think of fairy tales as bedtime stories.  There are lovable main characters, some mild peril, mythical creatures, magic, a happily ever after ending and some lessons learned along the way.  I vaguely remember this story from my childhood and I think if I had been more familiar with it, it would have been one of my favorites since it centers on a pair of sisters.  I'm from a family of four children and have always been close to my siblings.  I love the way this story opens with the relationship of the sisters,

...two children who were like the two rose-trees, and one was called Snow-white, and the other Rose- red. They were as good and happy, as busy and cheerful as ever two children in the world were, only Snow-white was more quiet and gentle than Rose-red. Rose-red liked better to run about in the meadows and fields seeking flowers and catching butterflies; but Snow-white sat at home with her mother, and helped her with her housework, or read to her when there was nothing to do.
The two children were so fond of one another that they always held each other by the hand when they went out together, and when Snow- white said: ’We will not leave each other,’ Rose-red answered: ’Never so long as we live,’ and their mother would add: ’What one has she must share with the other.’

Granted, my siblings and I were not so polarized, we each had a little Snow White and Rose-Red in us, but I love the friendship and unity between them and I like that right from the start, a moral about sharing is introduced.   As the story proceeds the two girls learn another lesson about fear and not judging things by appearances only.  Their adventure continues and the youngsters find themselves in a situation (a fairy-tale-appropriate three times) to come to the aid of a curmudgeonly dwarf.  Each time they rescue him, he curses their actions and grumbles at them.  This might be my favorite lesson of the tale because the children do good with no reward.  I think it is a poignant moral that helping others is always right, even when we are not thanked or appreciated for what we do.  Also, the ungrateful dwarf gets his own just reward and the generous girls are given a lovely version of happily ever after.

What are your thoughts on the tale of Snow White and Rose Red?  Do you have a favorite moral or theme from this story?  Share your thoughts here or link up with your own post to join the Fairy Tale Fridays Fun!

Fairy Tale Fridays is a weekly meme hosted by Tif of Tif Talks Books!  Check out Tif's post for the upcoming stories in December!  Join in with posts of your own and check out the other blogs involved!

The Ear of Corn is a story by The Brothers Grimm that is more a fable or a legend than what I usually think of when I hear "fairy tale".  I've lived in the Midwest region of the United States my entire life so I'm no stranger to fields upon fields of corn which often are, as the saying goes, "knee high by the fourth of July".   And yet, I've never given much thought to the origins of corn.  It's something I just take for granted as having always been here.

At the same time, I love stories that involve how things came to be.  As a child I remember loving Just So Stories by Kipling and others in that same style - the ones that had fables of how the camel got his hump or why the elephant has a trunk and the giraffe a long neck.  I think The Ear of Corn story fits in with these types of origin tales.  The story relates how corn used to grow with multiple ears on a single stalk.  Because mankind didn't appreciate the plentiful nature of corn, God removed the crop and only returned it to it's single ear per stalk form after hearing cries from the people.

I really like the quote from this story that says,

"Men however are so made, that when they are too well off they no longer value the blessings which come from God, but grow indifferent and careless."

I think this is an interesting reminder about living life with a spirit of gratitude.  Often times on or around Thanksgiving and Christmas people talk about how blessed they are to have things like family, shelter, food, jobs, clothing, and other things that they otherwise take for granted.  I certainly won't speak out against this notice of life's everyday blessings, but why not make it a point to appreciate them every day, all year long?  Similarly, around the holidays people often take the time to recognize those less fortunate and give more to charity, participate in service projects, and make an effort to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and heal the sick.  Why not take these same steps to help others in January, April, and August?  I think this story makes a good point - that holds true today - about how we recognize blessings most when times are leanest.  I'm glad that we have a holiday in the US that's devoted to giving thanks, but I also wish that more people (regardless of religious or nonreligious affiliation) would take the opportunity to do so on a daily basis.  

What are your thoughts on this story?  Do you agree that people appreciate blessings less when they are well off?  Do you give thanks - and give to others - daily or only around the holidays?  Share your thoughts here or post your own Fairy Tale Fridays post and link up with Tif at Tif Talks Books!

Fairy Tale Fridays is a weekly meme hosted by Tif of Tif Talks Books.  Check out Tif's site for more information on upcoming Fairy Tales to read and discuss!

The Old Grave-Stone by Hans Christian Andersen is not a story with which I was familiar, but seeing as how the title evokes a plethora of Halloween images, I happily read through it for this week's edition of Fairy Tale Fridays!  (FTF is a weekly meme hosted by Tif of Tif Talks Books.)  The fable is a relatively short one and recounts the story of a house in a provincial town with a large stone in front of it.  The rock has become a fixture of the landscape and children play on it, but the tale goes on to reveal that it is actually a grave marker relocated from an old cemetery.


The story proceeds with an old-man recalling some details of the lives of the man and woman - Preben and Martha Schwane - whose graves the stone was on.  Sadly, the repeated sentiment is, "Forgotten! Ah, yes, everything will be forgotten!" but in the midst of this, the very act of talking about the lives of the Schwanes passes their story on to younger generations.  At the end of the story, a young boy who has been listening to the old man hears the following words in his heart:

“Preserve carefully the seed that has been entrusted to thee, that it may grow and thrive. Guard it well. Through thee, my child, shall the obliterated inscription on the old, weather-beaten grave-stone go forth to future generations in clear, golden characters. The old pair shall again wander through the streets arm-in-arm, or sit with their fresh, healthy cheeks on the bench under the lime-tree, and smile and nod at rich and poor. The seed of this hour shall ripen in the course of years into a beautiful poem. The beautiful and the good are never forgotten, they live always in story or in song.” 

This is a beautiful way to end the story as it brings the hopeful and beautiful to light the sadness of  forgotten life.  It extols the virtue of oral traditions as the way to honor and remember those that have come before us.  I love the line, "they live always in story or in song."  Interestingly, this ending brought to mind a trip I took in high school to Salem, Massachusetts.  One of our stops was the church and graveyard that was the site and burial ground of many people involved with the Salem Witch Trials.  I remember how several of the crooked, dilapidated grave markers had barely legible inscriptions, and yet because of the history passed down - and likely because of Arthur Miller's The Crucible - family names such as Williams, Corey, and Proctor had a much greater significance to our group of travelers seeing them hundreds of years after they were inscribed. 

What are your thoughts on this story?  Have you ever traced a family genealogy or a lineage of a historical figure through tombstones?  Have you ever shared stories of friends or relatives no longer living with a younger generation?

Hans Christian Andersen, what did you do to my beloved Disney classic?!? 

Okay.  Deep breaths.  Before everyone starts angrily clicking the "Leave A Comment" button... I *know* that the 1836 story of The Little Mermaid predates the 1989 movie, but the movie, it's soundtrack, and associated bedsheets were an integral part of my childhood.  I haven't seen the movie in a few years but I can still sing every lyric of "Part of Your World" and its reprise from memory without batting an eye.  I was familiar with the original story, in that I knew the fairy tale didn't have a happy wedding with a rainbow ending, but I didn't realize just how cruel and violent HCA's writing of the story actually was, until I revisited the story for this week's edition of Fairy Tale Fridays.  (FTF is a weekly meme hosted by Tif of Tif Talks Books). 

To their credit, I will say that the Great Mouse Company did do several things right in adapting this fairy tale to film.  Much of the beginning of the story was accurately translated to the movie - the sea king resides in an underwater palace; the mermaid in the story is the youngest of several sisters and has the most beautiful voice among them; she is captivated by thoughts of the surface world and fascinated by a marble statue of a human; she saves a prince from drowning and trades her voice to the sea witch for the chance to become human.  In the scene of the tale where the mermaid is talking with the sea witch, their conversation is as follows,

“But if you take away my voice,” said the little mermaid, “what is left for me?”

“Your beautiful form, your graceful walk, and your expressive eyes; surely with these you can enchain a man’s heart. Well, have you lost your courage? Put out your little tongue that I may cut it off as my payment; then you shall have the powerful draught.”

On reading this my mind instantly jumped to the parallel scene in the movie which takes place in the song, "Poor Unfortunate Souls".  From memory it goes,

"But without my voice, how will I-"

"You'll have your looks!  Your pretty face!  And don't underestimate the importance of body language - hah!  The men up there don't like a lot of jabber.  They think a girl who gossips is a bore.  On land it's much preferred for ladies not to say a word.  It's she who holds her tongue who gets her man!"

Granted, there's no cutting out of tongues in the kid's movie, but I like how this scene and the persuasiveness of the sea witch was preserved.  But in the original story there's an extra sacrifice that the mermaid makes.  The witch tells her that in order to have legs and walk as a human, "at every step you take it will feel as if you were treading upon sharp knives". 
Ugh.  It was difficult enough in the movie to watch the poor girl give up her family and life at the chance of true love, but to add agonizing pain to that bargain sort of makes me wish she looked elsewhere for a boyfriend.  Of course, adding to the flip side of the bargain in Anderson's telling is "that the young prince may fall in love with you, and that you may have an immortal soul."  So it becomes legs and a chance at a soul, versus goodbye to family, no voice, and major pain.

She chooses the former.  I could argue that there's a moral in the benefit to taking a risk in this choice, but things do not end well for the mermaid.  The prince (you have no idea how much I want to call him Eric, but he is nameless in the tale) takes a fancy to the mysterious maiden with no voice, but he does not fall in love with her and ends up marrying another.  As much as I want to say there is a wacky battle in which seagulls, sea lions, a fish and a crab help the mermaid stop the wedding, that's not how things go.  

The prince goes through with the wedding which should be a death sentence for the now-human-mermaid.  Under the terms of the curse, she should become sea foam.  And yet, her sisters make their own bargain with the sea witch and in exchange for their hair, if their youngest sibling will cut out the prince's heart, she can become a mermaid again.  It doesn't seem to be too bad a deal to kill off the guy who wronged her and caused her a boatload of pain, but the mermaid's heart is too good and she can't kill the prince.  Instead she flings herself into the sea to accept her life as foam.

And yet, Anderson doesn't end the story there.  The mermaid instead becomes an air spirit, a mystical being with the chance at the eternal life and gaining the soul that the mermaid sought by hoping to marrying the prince.  Interestingly, the air spirits that she joins tell her,

“After three hundred years, thus shall we float into the kingdom of heaven,” said she. “And we may even get there sooner,” whispered one of her companions. “Unseen we can enter the houses of men, where there are children, and for every day on which we find a good child, who is the joy of his parents and deserves their love, our time of probation is shortened. The child does not know, when we fly through the room, that we smile with joy at his good conduct, for we can count one year less of our three hundred years. But when we see a naughty or a wicked child, we shed tears of sorrow, and for every tear a day is added to our time of trial!”

This part of the story to me is almost like the alternate ending on a DVD.  It's the bedtime story moral giving children one more reason to behave.  The reader or listener is never told what happened to the prince and his new bride or the fate of the mermaid's sisters who sacrificed of themselves to have her back.  It's not quite a happy or satisfying ending, but it does seem to conclude with an admonishment of "be good, sleep well".

What do you think of Andersen's version of The Little Mermaid?  (Click the title to read an online version of the complete tale.)  Any thoughts on the Disney film?  Share a comment here or post your own blog and join in the Fairy Tale Fridays fun over at Tif Talks Books!    Next week's story: The Old Grave-Stone.

This week's story for Fairy Tale Fridays (a meme hosted by Tif of Tif Talks Books) is The Invisible One and The Rough-Faced Girl, a Native American tale passed down through oral tradition (click the title to read the story).

As a side tangent, I have to say that I've always loved studying Native American spirituality.  One of my favorite authors as a young adult was Canadian writer Charles de Lint, as many of his books fuse fantasy with Native American stories and legends.  I don't want to hold any sort of "noble savage" stereotypes, but I really respect that fact that the stories represent cultures with a greater reverence and connection to the natural world.  I'm also fascinated by oral traditions and I love how storytelling can be so valued by a culture and tales can be passed from generation to generation through repeated telling and memorization. 

To summarize the story, it is the tale of a young girl who is abused by her relatives and more or less shunned by her village, yet turns out to be the only potential bride who can see the mysterious Invisible One.  With echoes of Cinderella and Beauty and The Beast, I really liked this story of hidden beauty and finding a heart of gold in someone that others overlooked.  I was a little shocked by the cruelty displayed in the story by the sisters to the Rough-Skin girl, but I was glad that at least one of them showed some mercy.  I also really enjoyed the moral about the value of truth telling in when the Rough-Skin girl met the Invisible One's sister.

There was a very interesting level of mystique surrounding the Invisible One also.  Not only did I find myself asking, why is he invisible?  I though it was a creative twist that when the Rough-Skin girl is finally able to see him, she reveals, "His shoulder strap is...is a rainbow" and "His bowstring is...the Milky Way."  This could be interpreted just as a fantastical detail or perhaps, the Invisible One is actually intended to be a God figure of some sort.  I could also interpret the story to mean that on seeing him, the Rough-Skin girl has actually died and her further transformation, becoming the Invisible One's bride, is a metaphor for the afterlife.

That's me waxing philosophical, because I like the theory, but it doesn't really fit with the final line of the story:

"And so they were married. And from then on, Oochigeaskw had a new name: the Lovely One. Like her husband, she too had kept herself hidden, waiting for the right person to find her, and now that she had that person's love, she was hidden no more."

So I would say then that the moral revealed here is the transforming power of love.  I think the note about her name changing is rather profound as well.  In reading from the Mi'kmaw Culture website, there is a direct connection between names and spirituality.  About Spirit Names, the site says:

"According to the teachings, we each have a spirit name from the moment our spirit first comes into existence, and the name follows us from life to life, and back into the spirit world afterwards. For this reason, we are not 'given' a spirit name by someone, we can only be reminded of the name we already carry. It is possible, however, that a person's spirit name will be added to, depending on the roles and experiences that are given to that person."

With this in mind, I would speculate that in this story, The Lovely One is probably the girl's original Spirit Name, where as Oochigeaskw (Rough Skin Girl) is the name that those around her gave to her after she was burned.  Maybe the oldest sister was even jealous of the youngest girl's loveliness and thus set out to disfigure her.  The Invisible One and the love he was able to show her, restored her true Spirit Name as it restored her hidden beauty.

What are your thoughts on this legend?  Do you see something in the tale that I missed or do you think my interpretations hit the mark? Leave your thoughts below and check out Tif's post about this story as well.  Got more to say?  Link up with your own blog post celebrating Fairy Tale Fridays!  Thanks again to Tif for hosting this meme and picking such a unique and interesting story.  Next week's fairy tale: The Little Mermaid (And I'll try not to break out singing "Under da Sea"!)

L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is one of those precious novels that has almost been eclipsed in fame by the movie based on it. I must admit that more than once when picking up this book, I mentally sung to myself, "I'm off to read the wizard, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz". And yet, as fond as I am of the classic musical, I somehow went through childhood never having read the original text. Berating myself over this, I eagerly downloaded the novel to my Kindle (for free!) and joyfully read the simple story rather rapidly.

Baum really did create a wonderful fantasy story for children with this book. The prose is straightforward but beautifully descriptive and the adventures are quite numerous for such a short story. I was pleased to find that the movie had done justice to the book, but there were also some rather startling discoveries such as Dorothy's not-so-ruby slippers: the magical, iconic Hollywood footwear were originally written to be silver shoes. The book also covers much more of the various people and places in Oz, including the Winkies and the Quadlings, and another surprise was that the winged monkeys were not entirely evil.

Would these be the world's most expensive shoes if they were silver?

I really enjoyed experiencing this book as an adult, but I'm rather sure I would have loved it even more as a child. Baum's imagination is extensive and I think Dorothy's adventures have a distinctive bedtime story feel to them. The classic characters of the Lion, Tin Woodsman, and Scarecrow, and even the spunky little dog Toto, make this a story about friendship and love as much as about fantasy and fun. Knowing that no matter how far one travels it is good to be safe and at home again, this story seems to end perfectly with the sighing words, "good night".

Welcome to my first participation in Fairy Tale Fridays, a meme hosted by Tif of Tif Talks Books!  Each week bloggers read a fairy tale and post their thoughts on it, linking back to Tif's post and sharing in what others thought of the story as well.  This week's tale is The Bremen Town Musicians by The Brothers (Jacob and Wilhelm) Grimm.  (Click on the title to read the story.)

Though I've read plenty of Grimm's Fairy Tales, this was the first I had heard of The Bremen Town Musicians.  I liked that the "musicians" of the title were animals, each having been cast off or slated for death by their owners and reinventing themselves on a journey to Bremen for musical fame.  I think there's a hardy lesson of utility to be learned here.  Where as the humans in the story think nothing of the old animals, to each other, they have talents and usefulness aplenty.

I also love the moral about teamwork and cooperation.  Each animal plays a part in scaring off the robbers by playing their own role and doing what each one does best.  The rooster does not try to be the cat.  The donkey does not try to take the dog's place.  There is a theme that each is exactly where they belong, and that is why, as a team, they succeed. It's a model that works in a fairy tale but is equally potent in business, friendships, family, and multiple other aspects of everyday life.

What are your thoughts on The Bremen Town Musicians?  Which theme resonates more with you - seeing usefulness in those abandoned by others or each individual using unique talents for the best of a team?  Or perhaps there's another moral or theme that I haven't mentioned?  Leave a comment here or check out Tif's blog and join in Fairy Tale Fridays (FTF) for yourself.  Next week's tale is The Invisible One and The Rough-Faced Girl (A Native American Tale)!

Book: The Last Wilderness by Erin Hunter

Series: Seekers

Book Order: The Quest Begins*  (1), Great Bear Lake* (2), Smoke Mountain* (3), The Last Wilderness* (4), Fire in the Sky (5) 
* indicates a book I have read

Erin Hunter's Seekers series follows the story of three bears - no Goldilocks this time - Kallik, a polar bear; Toklo, a brown bear; and Lusa, a black bear.  The three cubs come from very different backgrounds but are drawn together, along with a very special guide, on a quest to save the wild.  Each sees the way that their environment is affected by humans and pollution and it becomes their quest to find a way to stop the destruction of the natural world.

As much as this is a story about environmentalism - hence the tie in to carbon neutral blogging - this series is also about friendship.  With stoic Kallik, grumbling Toklo, and happy-go-lucky Lusa, the ties between these bears and their unique personalities make for wonderful storytelling.   There are plenty of challenges they face throughout their adventures, and the action and suspense woven into each book creates a string of great novels.  This series is all the more enjoyable in that it subtly incorporates the theme of awareness for the conservation of natural resources.  

If anyone is interested in joining me in the carbon neutral blogging endeavor, I'd love for you to also post the image above to your blog and follow the instructions on their website.  (I know it states Arbor Day 2010, but I emailed and they are still planting trees!)  And if anyone else a favorite new tip for energy conservation, share those here too!